Mobile terminals operating according to Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards may be required to continuously perform radio measurements of various access points in a wireless communication network, such as radio measurements on signals received from a serving cell or one or more neighboring cells. The radio measurements may be required in both connected modes of operation (such as RRC_Connected mode in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) configuration or CELL_DCH mode in a Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS) configuration), where the mobile terminal has an active two-way connection with the wireless communication network, and idle modes of operation (such as RRC_Idle mode in an LTE configuration or CELL_PCH mode in a UMTS configuration), where the mobile terminal is substantially only receiving basic information (such as e.g. limited control and/or paging information) from the wireless communication network.
Mobile terminals may be required to perform intra-frequency, inter-frequency, and inter-RAT (Radio Access Technology) measurements in both connected and idle modes. As inter-frequency and inter-RAT measurements may require substantial adjustment in operation for reception of wireless signals, a single-receiver mobile terminal may not be able to continue receiving downlink information during inter-frequency and inter-RAT measurements. Accordingly, measurement gap patterns may be provided in order to allocate use of the receiver between downlink reception and radio measurement over time.
3GPP has specified such measurement gap patterns for use in both connected mode and idle mode. In RRC_Idle mode in an LTE configuration, a mobile terminal may implement a DRX (Discontinuous Reception Cycle) cycle during which downlink reception is suspended for relatively lengthy continuous intervals of time to allow inter-frequency and inter-RAT measurements to be performed. In RRC_Connected mode, a mobile terminal may implement a measurement gap pattern, during which inter-frequency and inter-RAT measurements are accomplished by temporarily suspending downlink reception to according to a set period in order to perform relatively short radio measurements.
A mobile terminal may thus be able to maintain sufficient downlink reception for conventional unicast data traffic in both connected mode and idle mode by performing radio measurements according to a respective DRX cycle or measurement gap pattern.